I am not sure where you are at this point but you have an interesting problem that I have not seen with dozens of installations. Are you able to format but not complete the installation or unable to format? Some of the above points regarding memory are valid ones and I would check to make sure the memory you have is compatible with the MOBO by checking the mfg site. Also make sure you are selecting the correct settings in your MOBO BIOS for your HD in terms of UMDA or PIO. If you can format but not install and have elimanated the memory, remove all hardware except the video card and CD and floppy drives and try again. I would suspect a hardware problem at this point. Also, if you receive a stop error during installaion, make a note of it and check at sft-cyber.com for common stop errors. Let us know how you do.

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I am unable to format through the xp setup. I can format through a dos prompt, but if I select a format in the xp installation process, it fails out. As I stated earlier, if I format through DOS and select the option to leave the existing partition and just copy the installation files to the hard drive, upon finishing I get a stop error telling me that the system has to power down due to a fatal error. I've also checked through the BIOS settings and cannot see anything out of the ordinary. The motherboard manufacturer does not have any note on incompatible memory, but the documentation says it will accept PC2100, which is what is in there.

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I've got the same problem... I had a 120GB disk with XP, and it crashed... I installed XP on my old 30GB and then it worked... I inserted my new 120GB in my pc, and I got the same error when I wanted to format it... ==> Damaged Hard Disk... I lost al my files :( :( :(

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Unfortunately I've tried 3 different hard drives, two brand new.

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I tried taking everything else out besides the video card, but no luck. I didn't think it would work though. The only other thing I have in it is a NIC card.

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I am also experiencing the same issues, tried to install XP, 2000, 98 with no avil, replaced ram, video, hd's (pretty much stripped the machine) and still nothing works. If anyone finds a sollution please email me. Thanks Ryan

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I ended up replacing the motherboard. I installed it and rebooted XP with no problem. I don't know if it is a known issue with the board I was using or what. I was using a ECS board with an AMD Athlon XP and replaced it with an XFX board with a Pentium 4.

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Pretty drastic, but at leat you got it working. I suspect there was some sort of problem with the mb itself though. OS are usually no mb specific. Larry

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I've got the same problem with my Dell 8100. When I try to format I get "Setup was unable to format the partition, the disk may be damaged". After several attempts, I went out and bought a new WD 120GB hard drive. I still get the same error message. The weird thing about the whole thing is that I never had a problem formating with the XP setup before. I've made no changes to the system. The memory tests okay. I swapped out primary and secondary IDE cables, Flashed the BIOS (incase corrupt), Reseated memory, Disconnected Zip (Primary Slave), Changed hard drives (incase you missed that above), all to no avail. I disconnect the network cable from the system and was able to do a quick format. The disconnection probably had nothing to do with the quick format results. When I disconnected the cable, it was the first time I attempted a quick format. After three days of messing with the system I got fed up and did the Quick format, installed Windows XP, and washed my hands of the problem. XP's been installed for a week now and I haven't had any problems, no funky memory errors, nothing. Not that I was expecting problems, XP was installed for a year prior without problems. I formatted several time prior without problems. I don't get it. I can only think of two things I didn't try. The first is pulling the system board battery (which should reset everything on the motherboard). Second, set the drives to master and slave, instead of Cable Select. Both solutions are shots in the in dark, but what else is there? A faulty Power Supply? Hmmmm!

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Never did figure out exactly what happened. From researching, I found that ECS boards have had lots of problems due to integration issues. The other board has worked fine in several builds since then. Guess I learned a lesson...always stick with the brands you know work.

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Bfmooz, Good tip on the boards. I use Asus almost exclusively and have never had a compatibility problem. And they are usually built very well. Larry

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I'm having the same prblm w/XP install formatting...New Year's Eve I put together my new pc-Asus P4S533-X mb, P4 2.0 cpu and WD 80g ide hdd. While installing XP, the full NTFS format 100% completes(fails?) with the following err msg... Error Message: Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged. Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to your computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your computer or SCSI adapter documentation for more information. You will have to select a different partition for Windows XP. Press ENTER to continue. I can format this hdd fine using a Win98 startup diskette and the "format" command. And it formats fine using a Win2K install cd too. So it seems my hdd and cable are ok. Last night I popped a WD 10g ide hdd in and it also fails with the above err msg at the end of the XP full NTFS format. For the heck of it I started partitoning and formatting this 10g into smaller sizes. When I tried 2000mb(2g) I still got the err msg but at 1999mb it worked fine, no err msg and the install moved on. I may play around with formatting the 80g at smaller sizes but I assume I'll end up with the same results, just not sure why(yet). The drives just do not want to successfully fully format using NTFS full format on the XP install cd. I posted this prblm on the MS website hoping for a response (then I found this msg board). I may call Asus and/or WD today. Any ideas or solutions?

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I had the exact same problem. I have an MSI Mobo and when I first got it I had to update the BIOS for me to do anything. I came to this conclusion when I was unable to install XP after many numerous errors. After I updated the BIOS I was able to start up and install XP. Then it turned out to be another thing wrong and that was the Memory. I got a new stick from the company that I bought it from and now I am stuck with it not being able to finish formating like the guy here. I have changed the Video car, Procesor, Memory, hard drive, and power supply with no avail. I have came to the conclusion that it is the motherboard. So I am packing it up and sending it off tomorrow. Still I would love to be informed on to how or why this is a problem. Could it be a IRQ conflict or something? Thanks, Gatorbyte

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Sorry I haven't posted back in a while...been trblshooting this all weekend and after trying quite a few things here is what I eventually came up with: My Asus boot order is (1)floppy, (2)cd, which I can choose between the MadDog rom or the LiteOn burner-I chose the rom, (3)hdd. I noticed when booting that although I chose the rom over the burner, it didn't matter which one I had the XP boot disk in, the pc would find it and start booting. Note my burner is on the secondary master and the rom is on the secondary slave. When booting with the cd in the rom it starts out fine but when it's not being accessed and spins down, like during a long format or when the install is sitting there too long waiting for you to respond with a key stroke/command, when the cd again needs to be reaccessed, like when the format completes, it then tries accessing the burner(and my install cd is in the rom where it has been). I assume this is because the burner is on the master? That's what I'm not sure about, why it is doing this, but I proved it by putting a XP install cd in both. I start the install and format using the rom and when the format completes, the install continues but it's using the cd in the burner. Strange but understandable-I had no real prblm all along, just a prblm getting to know my new pc I guess although I don't think the mb/BIOS should be doing this when I set the rom to be my boot device, not the burner! Guess I'll call Asus today. It would really be nice if the XP err I was getting pointed to no cd in the drive it was trying to access instead of saying a possible power, drive, connection or scsi prblm. Not sure if this has been any of the prblms posted here but thought you all might like to know this incase someone runs into it again...

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yes it's a very strange problem. i have a new 80gb hard drive. when i use NTFS system to format the hard drive and winXP will format to 100% and shows error 'Setup is unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged'. however, i then used FAT system to format the partition, it worked and installed winXP without a glitch.

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